Home Smoked Salmon
Smoked foods are a delight
There is nothing better than home smoked salmon. I go to Costco for fresh, skin on salmon. Although I have tried the recipe with steelhead, the fish is too lean to keep it from becoming kind of dry. When salmon is cooked too hot or too fast, the ribbons of fat tend to bubble to the surface, which is a bit unsightly, but more importantly, rendering out the fat makes the salmon dry. The method I use is by a chap named Kummok whose recipe I found on the Bradley site (link below). In it he specifies a gradual temperature increase with time. This causes the fat to remain within the fish, leading to wonderfully moist smoked salmon.
Preparing home smoked salmon
I like to use a marinade of half mixture of Yoshida’s, and half soy with red pepper flakes, onion powder, and garlic powder. Into the fridge overnight, then paper towel dried and into the Bradley smoker. Because there are three smoking temperatures, O modified my smoker with a device that controls the temperature within the unit. It also automatically raises the temperature according to the set temperatures. I like using using alder wood. Light alder smoke kisses the fish, and imparted the ideal flavor to accompany the exquisite texture of the perfect home smoked salmon.
That is one of my favorite ways to have salmon
I need to make more smoked salmon, but the farmed kind is way too fatty, and the steelhead is too dry when done. My favorite is Copper River salmon whic we purchase at Costco.